The GLTA never demanded a percentage of the Sport Ministry’s budget

I confess to an inability to discern whether Mr. Neil Kumar’s response (S/N April 21, All expenditure under the Sports and Art Development Fund can be accounted for) to Business Page (BP) of April 17 is a measure of an innate tendency to mislead and obfuscate, a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of what was written coupled with a failure to distinguish between the President of the Guyana (Lawn) Tennis Association and Christopher Ram the incumbent. Even as he confesses – in relation to Business Page – to an appreciation of writing that impresses and persuades, he misinterprets my disclosure of interest as one of bias.

I therefore ask Mr. Kumar to read the column again and provide the taxpaying public with a more informed response to the specific issues raised therein. Until then, there are certain issues in his response that warrant some comment.

1. That the Director of Sports – an office created under the National Sports Commission Act, 1993 – should sign a letter trying to defend the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport for its vindictiveness, discrimination among sporting bodies and lack of transparency and accountability, confirms the incestuous relationship between the Ministry and the Commission, an independent statutory body in receipt of a subvention.

2. Mr. Kumar says incorrectly that I demanded a percentage of the Ministry’s Sports Budget to be assigned to tennis. What the GLTA did was make a request for a contribution to help finance a national team of six under-14 tennis players to participate for the first time in a world lawn tennis event. It was in response to Dr. Anthony’s categorical refusal to our request that we pointed out to the Minister that what the GLTA was asking for was the equivalent to 0.2% of the 2010 sports budget, or 20 “cents” of every one hundred dollars. Since Mr. Kumar was not at the meeting I can excuse him if Dr. Anthony misrepresented our request, which leaves the minister in a rather invidious position. Determined not to go begging the Minister again this year we undertook some audacious fundraising efforts which made it possible for our juniors to participate once again in the WJT, showing considerable improvement.

3. Mr. Kumar suggested that I should have called the Ministry for clarification before writing BP. He may wish to ask his minister and the minister’s secretary of the number of unanswered written and oral communication not only from our Association but other sports bodies as well.

He may also wish to offer some explanation for a piece of advice given to me by an officer recently that I should have someone else sign letters from our Association!

4. Mr. Kumar carefully avoided the disclosure of the ballooning cost of the swimming pool and instead takes us around to the Non Pareil tennis courts which are as much a saga as the swimming pool, in terms of time, quality and increasing, undisclosed cost.

5. Now we are told that money from the Fund went to pay for the Guyana Classics, a project headed by Dr. David Dabydeen, recently appointed Ambassador to China. Carefully, Mr. Kumar did not specify how much of the five hundred million dollars allocated to the Fund so far was paid towards that project and who were the payees/beneficiaries.

6. Since Mr. Kumar accuses me of acting on dated information, can he tell us the last year for which Minister Frank Anthony tabled in the National Assembly, as required by the NSC Act, the annual report and audited financial statements of the NSC.

7. Finally, in connection with the status of the NSC, Mr. Kumar’s response is revealing indeed. He should ask its former Chairman Mr. Conrad Plummer why he has consistently disavowed association with the NSC and whether it was not because the NSC had been defunct and dead for several years. Overcome by the spirit of Easter, Cabinet we are now told has resurrected it!

To use a term in doubles tennis, the ball is now in Mr. Kumar’s and his Minister’s court.

Serious questions remain about the LCDS including the wisdom of putting Norway funds into the Amaila project

Despite its Stalinist ring, the request to Transparency International by acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Manzoor Nadir for a purge of the board of Transparency Institute (Guyana) Inc. (TIGI), a civil society group, is no surprise. Similarly, his falsehood that TIGI director Gino Persaud was “removed by the Government from the University Council” and his references to familial connections are entirely consistent with the evolution of the political behaviour of Mr. Nadir.

Not surprising either is President Jagdeo’s threat to host a press conference to deal exclusively with civil society activists Dr. Janette Bulkan and me over a letter on the LCDS signed by a group that includes the two of us. That too has become par for his course. Whether he will carry out that promise is uncertain given his surreal Saturday Night forgiveness fiesta and epiphany.

The venom in the statements by Messrs. Jagdeo and Nadir show how intolerant the Jagdeo administration has become of independent voices and critical views. I have no authority to speak for TIGI, the directors of which are quite capable. I do however feel compelled to respond to the attacks on my colleagues who signed the open letter for their “blasphemy” in expressing their well-grounded fears of abuse of LCDS money by a government that constantly shows only a cynical interest in openness, transparency and accountability and audit of public funds. A government that seems able to find from nowhere sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for spy equipment, for laptops and for various improper activities.

I assume those associated with a counter-letter under the Jagdeo-led Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee (MSSC) did in fact read the letter in full and not rely on the government’s misrepresentation of it. To them I wish to pose the following issues relevant to the LCDS:

1. No matter how inevitable, any change in policy has winners and losers. How does the prioritization of the spending projects take account of and compensate, whether by way of cash compensation, retraining or otherwise, some of the biggest losers such as the forestry and mining sectors and their thousands of employees and small operators.

2. Our first peoples deserve reparations and appreciation of the rest of the country. But they also deserve our honesty, not hypocrisy. For four years until I called for action, the Government refus-ed to pay the Amerindians their share of royalty under the Amerindian Act.

3. Under the Guyana-Norway MOU, the Amerindians are not bound by the constraints of the LCDS and can choose to opt in or stay out of the LCDS. They are required to make no sacrifice but are the first in line for rewards. The LCDS is a country project not an ethnic initiative. If the Norwegians wish to assist the Amerindians then they should contribute to an Amerindian Fund.

4. By its patronizing attitude the government is creating a charity, entitlement culture among Amerindians who simply sit back and ask when is the money coming rather than consider among themselves steps to exploit their unique traditional knowledge, their culture and the resources they control.

5. The delay in disbursements is not due to any failings by Norway, the World Bank or members of civil society. It is because the Government has failed to submit proper project proposals which are ready for implementation. At this stage all they can advance is land titling and solar panels for the Amerindians and equity in Fip Motilall’s hydro-electricity project.

To the Government’s credit, land-titling under the Amerindian Act is a low cost administrative exercise which since 2006 has been funded out of the national budget. It does not need LCDS money.

6. The alternative energy initiative is being funded by the IDB and again does not require LCDS money.

7. That leaves the hydro-electricity project spearheaded by a man who has consistently failed to meet his contractual obligations to this country and its people. Under a licence granted to him in 2002, Mr. Fip Motilall’s company was supposed to provide thermal power as an interim measure and commence construction of the Amaila Hydro-Electricity Plant. He did not supply the thermal plant but the Government renewed/extended the licence in 2004, and again in 2006 for one year which means that it would have required further extensions to remain current. That information is not public.

8. Despite all of that bad experience, in 2009 the government awarded Synergy a road project contract under an unlawful process managed by an unlawfully operating government company NICIL. Which businessperson in their right mind would agree to put their money into his company which did not realize that it needed first to have a road to the plant site before it could build the plant?

9. The hydro-electricity plant would revert to the state after an already agreed period with no financial input by the Government. By putting LCDS funds into the company the country is paying for an asset the residual ownership of which is already agreed to be vested in the state. If we are to put money into the project why should Motilall remain in control? Now that we have a Procure-ment Act should we not put the project out to tender? Is the best use of the Norwegian-sourced money rushing headlong into what will amount to a joint-venture with and controlled by Mr. Motilall?

10. Like its comparator the PNC, this government has a poor record on accounting and transparency. But in terms of truth and integrity, this government is in a class of its own. Relevantly, can Mr. Peter Persaud and Mr. Clinton Urling – no doubt well-intentioned and well-informed persons – who have written critically of the letter by Dr. Janette Bulkan and others, tell us how they knew of the Siddhartha 1.8 million acres deal which had been hidden from the rest of the country and possibly the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee?

11. I would like too to hear from the informed members of the SSMC about the carbon footprint of the deal with Siddhartha and whether it is compatible with the ethos and concept of a low carbon development strategy.

With all respect to the Amerindians land titling is not a low carbon issue and what do we do with the annual average US$50 million we will receive while Mr. Motilall takes his time in building our hydro-electricity facility? Put it all into his company? I hope the businesspersons on the SSMC would ask their Chairman Mr. Jagdeo to publish the Licence, agreements and extensions with Mr. Motilall before any public funds are put into his company.

Finally, let me say this to Jagdeo, Nadir and those who feel compelled to attack Dr. Bulkan and other members of civil society. I consider Dr. Bulkan and all the other signatories to our letter, capable, patriotic and courageous. I have never distanced myself from such persons and am proud to be associated with them – cuss or no cuss.

Guyana does not observe the eight sub-rules of the rule of law

Mr Anil Mohabir Nandlall evades my request (‘Not the rule of law’ SN, March 22) for him to state his opinion as to whether Guyana observes Lord Bingham’s eight sub-rules of the rule of law and instead immodestly invites me to examine his legal career: (‘Not a response to letter on mischief caused by prescriptive title’ SN, March 25). I leave an examination of his career to those with the interest, time and inclination to do so, but welcome the opportunity to examine his assertion that “the presence of the rule of law in a society… can be measured by an examination of the workings of the democratic institutions in the society.”

While Mr Nandlall and I may differ on their order of importance, we can at least agree that the principal institutions include the constitution itself, the president, the state, the parliament, national elections, local government elections, the judiciary, the Ombudsman, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the police force, the Audit Office and the Public Procurement Commission. Let us examine them.

1. A fundamental tenet of the rule of law is that all are equal in the eyes of the law while our constitution endows one person with the privileges and immunity of a monarch under the divine right of kings doctrine. Mr Nandlall’s hero Cheddi Jagan, had vowed to change what he and his party referred to as the Burnham constitution, a constitution that hangs like an albatross around the nation’s neck, notwithstanding the timid changes under the St Lucia Accord. If at least ten articles of the constitution have not been operationalised, do we need further evidence that even this “undemocratic” constitution is not working?

2. Few would dispute that over more than a decade, this President has routinely violated the constitution, the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 and the Procurement Act 2003, broke (tax) and bends (procurement) laws to help his friends; creates jobs for his political cronies whose sell-by date has long expired; heads an office where procurement takes on a special meaning; and who surrounds himself with persons not deserving of respect. In short, the Office of the President is the very antithesis of the rule of law and the constitution.

3. The state’s “supreme organs of democratic power” are spelt out in Article 50 of the constitution as the president, the parliament of which he is a part and of which he plays an important role in the appointment of the majority, and the cabinet which is an advisory body to the president, making the three organs largely embedded in a single individual. Is this Mr Nandlall’s concept of democracy and the rule of law and does it explain why the constitution is so frequently violated by the President with impunity, whether in relation to assenting to bills and the naming of constitutional commissions and office holders? Perhaps I can ask the learned counsel to explain the constitutionality of the President’s refusal to assent to Bill No.18 of 2000 dated December 15, 2000 and unanimously passed by the National Assembly on January 4, 2001. Let me remind him that this was no ordinary bill but one that sought to elevate certain articles from principles to fundamental rights for citizens. In any democratic country where the rule of law prevailed the President would have long had to resign.

4. And what about the National Assembly whose productivity is modest by any standard, whose priority does not see a flooding of agricultural land as a matter of urgent public interest, which regularly passes laws that are a violation of the constitution, whose members represent no one but a political party, who vote for bills they have never read or cannot understand and who receive generous duty-free concessions and qualify for pensions at the age of forty? And that protects at all costs a Minister who misleads the House about a small matter of $4B of public money!

5. National elections which are characterised by playing to ethnic and racial sentiments and insecurities (Babu John annually), patronage, bribing of sections of the electorate by the incumbent, misuse of state funds and justifying it as the privilege of incumbency, and political parties operating outside of a legal framework. Those things distort the fairness of elections and are a real threat to democracy as political debts have to be paid, often with tax immunity, special contracts and other favours.

6. I doubt that Mr Nandlall would consider the absence of local government elections since 1994 as anything but a cynical and gross violation of Article 12 which states that “local government by freely elected representatives of the people is an integral part of the democratic organisation of the State.”

7. The courts which are the guardians of the constitution and the citizens’ rights are hobbled by a law that takes away their independence while the constitutional requirement for consultation between the President and the Leader of the Opposition on the appointment of the head of the judiciary is bypassed by an acting appointment.

8. An Ombudsman, the people’s judge, has not been appointed for six years so that the poor have no avenue and opportunity for redress. That needs no comment, either about democracy or the rule of law.

9. And no discussion on the rule of law can exclude the police that in this major drug transshipment country cede their duty and responsibilities in drug case investigations; whose operational efficiency and independence are often compromised by a telephone call from the politicians; which selectively investigate a blog site critical of the government but refuse to act on another friendly to the government; which needed a drug lord to fight a crime wave; and which is involved in a struggle with its Minister as to who should and should not get a gun licence.

10. The Audit Office, the guardian of the public purse is handicapped by the acting appointment of an unqualified head and compromised by a conflict of interest involving its deputy. No wonder then that it cannot yet publish its 2005 flood report or the 2007 Cricket World Cup report; that it conveniently ignores the improprieties of the big-spending ministries and big ticket items in favour of the checking of vehicle log books and ineffective special investigations on poor people at the Palms and in receipt of pensions.

11. And even as we spend more and more billions on contracts of dubious benefit, quality and authority, the government has refused to establish the constitutionally mandated Public Procurement Commission so that Fip Motilall’s multi-billion dollar contract can pass through NICIL with its huge slush fund, and another multi-billion dollar contract is awarded to a Chinese company, Huawei, now involved in the Laptop scandal.

The litany of violations by these instruments of democracy and the rule of law is long and depressing enough to cause some to refer to Guyana as a failed state. I do not share that view, but rather consider it a dysfunctional state administered undemocratically, that facilitates, permits and protects illegalities and improprieties by a certain class. I am interested to hear Mr Nandlall’s explanation for these phenomena under a government that has been in place for eighteen years, and the reasons why he thinks the party of Cheddi Jagan is unwilling to introduce access to information legislation to give effect to Article 146 of the constitution.

Not the Rule of Law

Mr Anil Nandlall was one of the principal speakers when the National Assembly debated the end of provisions in the age-old law Title to Land (Prescription and Limitation) Act which allowed a person who has, without permission, occupied state land for more than thirty years to approach the court to grant title to that land. He followed that up with a letter in the press (‘Land amendment bill was promulgated to address a serious problem’ SN, March 16 ) which ends with the words “Guyana is a democracy where the rule of law reigns supreme,” and which conveniently invokes the name of Cheddi Jagan.

Mr Nandlall’s letter represents a view of democracy being only and all about five-yearly elections in which state resources can be used by the incumbent to be re-elected and where once in office, he is free to ignore constitutional requirements on local government elections, the appointment of an Ombudsman and the setting up of important commissions such as the public procurement commission; improperly accounting for and unlawfully using public funds; and enriching the re-elected party at the state’s expense as is increasingly happening in the twilight of the Jagdeo presidency. While wrong, that seems to be the democracy practised by Mr Nandlall’s party.

On the issue of the rule of law, I assume that Mr Nandlal is familiar with the Sixth Sir David Williams Lecture on the Rule of Law given by Lord Bingham of Cornhill. I would like to hear Mr Nandlall’s views on whether the state in Guyana observes the eight sub-rules of the rule of law spelt out and discussed by Bingham. For the benefit of readers I reproduce in the first person the third and sixth of these sub-rules and note that the sixth was actually highlighted (printed in bold) in the text of the lecture released to the public.

a) “My third sub-rule is that the laws of the land should apply equally to all, save to the extent that objective differences justify differentiation.

b) “My sixth sub-rule expresses what many would, with reason, regard as the core of the rule of law principle. It is that ministers and public officers at all levels must exercise the powers conferred on them reasonably, in good faith, for the purpose for which the powers were conferred and without exceeding the limits of such powers.”

Against this background, let us now compare the law relating to land as it applies to one set of people – many poor – and to another – the rich and the powerful. With the amendment – or rather repeal of the law referred to above – a long-held right of a person who has occupied public land without permission for 30 continuous years to apply for title under the Title to Land (Prescription and Limitation) Act is being taken away. To buttress his argument in favour of the repeal, Mr Nandlall quotes Article 32 of the constitution which imposes a duty on every citizen to protect the property of the state.

Now compare this with what has taken place in Pradoville 2 where state property with legal and environmental importance has been expropriated by President Jagdeo for himself, other members of the ruling elite and those whose support they need. Let us remember too that Mr Jagdeo and the political ruling class received the same kind of benefit of state land in Pradoville 1 under Cheddi Jagan and which came with several covenants which President Jagdeo failed to observe. By what stretch of the imagination can this be considered consistent with the ‘rule of law’? Or does ‘rule of law’ have one meaning for the political elite and another for the poor?

I wonder whether Mr Nandlall, the professional attorney-at-law, would refuse to act for a client seeking representation under the doctrine of legitimate expectation who has openly and for decades occupied, often with the knowledge of the leadership of the party he serves, public property, investing millions of dollars on that property.

I wonder, too, whether Mr Nandlall the politician will now tell his party that they have to support the eviction of their supporters on the East Coast Demerara whom they courted prior to the 1997 and 2001 elections with promises of ‘certificates of comfort’ and the assurance that their situation would be ‘regularized.’ And as a politician, whether he has exercised his duty to defend state property when the state’s freehold land is given to a member of the party in exchange for that person’s failure to develop leasehold land in Berbice.

Finally, I wonder whether Mr Nandlall believes that similar to the citizen in Article 32, the state has a duty to protect private property and whether he cares that persons can lose their title to someone who has unlawfully squatted on their property for twelve years – or in some cases simply stating that they have done so, as Mr Nandlall might know.

Let me make my own position clear. I am no supporter of title by prescription – whether of private or public property. But I believe that anyone who preaches or defends one standard for the poor and the powerless and another for the rich and the powerful is engaging in hypocrisy and double standards.

The President hides under the apron of the constitution’s immunity clause

The commemoration ceremony for the late President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, at the cremation site at Babu John in Berbice has a strange and profound effect on President Jagdeo. It is as if some weird spirit causes his newly minted doctorate in literature to desert him in favour of palpable fabrication; his natural immaturity to descend into inexplicable recklessness and the stature of his presidency into miasmic freefall.

A couple of years ago the spirit caused him to tell his dumbfounded Babu John audience that if the PNCR was returned to power, the same people who were stealing guns would be given them. This year it is about blood and its target is that party’s presidential candidate, retired Brigadier David Granger against whom the accusations were so beyond the pale that even Jagdeo’s preference as presidential successor Mr Donald Ramotar sought to rephrase the accusation describing it euphemistically as “a bit harsh.”

Once again, the President abuses the country’s constitution to make defamatory statements about others while hiding under the apron of immunity article in the constitution. He knows – or rather thinks – that he has such absolute and unqualified immunity under the constitution that he cannot be prosecuted for anything. I doubt whether the framers of the constitution would have intended the constitution to be interpreted in such literal and absurd sense. Yet, his confidence – or recklessness – seems to lead him to believe that he can, with impunity, accuse others of being incompetent, habitués of rum shops, man kisser, etc.

When Mr Freddie Kissoon, whom Mr Jagdeo regularly abuses and defames, uses a term which the head of state regards as offensive to describe his presidency, Mr Jagdeo runs to the court for financial compensation for loss of reputation. In the process he also sought and obtained a silencing order (injunction) against Mr Kissoon, an order that has been challenged but not heard by the court. One hopes that when the court calls, Mr Jagdeo will be courageous enough to take the stand and answer questions about his presidency and his conduct over the past several years.

Meanwhile, I believe that in Mr Granger, Mr Jagdeo has more than met his match. Now that Mr Granger has stood up to him, we wait to see what he will do.